Windsor councillor Al Maghnieh tossed from committees

Councillor Al Maghnieh's desk sits empty during striking committee meeting which took place in the Walkerville room at city hall in Windsor Monday.Tyler Brownbridge
/ The Windsor Star

Councillors Ed Sleiman, left, Alan Halberstadt and Hillary Payne take part in a striking committee meeting which took place in the Walkerville room at city hall in Windsor on Monday, April 30, 2012. The striking committee voted to replace Councillor Al Maghnieh with JoAnne Gignac. Maghnieh was also removed from any other city-appointed committees and boards.Tyler Brownbridge
/ The Windsor Star

WINDSOR, Ont. -- Al Maghnieh’s council colleagues voted unanimously Monday to kick him off all council committees, as well as from any appointed boards and agencies on which he represented Windsor.

“It’s the only control we have — we don’t have control over who sits on council,” said Ward 1 Coun. Drew Dilkens, who made the motion at a striking committee meeting.

“We consider very, very wrong what he did,” said Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, who was the first councillor last week to call on Maghnieh to resign over the library credit card scandal.

Monday’s striking committee meeting was held to fill vacancies left at the library board after Maghnieh, as chairman, and then Alex Cameron, as the board’s appointed finance committee chairman, resigned over Maghnieh’s personal spending habits on a library credit card.

He continued the practice even after being warned such use was prohibited.

Monday’s motion also ends any sharing arrangement with Maghnieh of pooled earnings council members get by sitting on various boards and agencies. Last year, it amounted to a top-up of more than $11,000 for most councillors earning almost $29,000 in base pay.

Maghnieh was to have attended Monday’s executive committee meeting, at which time he had announced he would address the public. But in an emailed statement that afternoon, the Ward 10 representative said that, “after careful consideration and advice from Mayor Francis, I will not be attending tonight’s executive committee meeting.

“Instead, I will continue to seek professional and personal counselling throughout the following week. I look forward to addressing the public during next week’s meeting of city council.”

On Thursday, Maghnieh quit his job as chief spokesman for the Catholic school board.

Mayor Eddie Francis said he met with Maghnieh at a Windsor Airport boardroom Saturday night and the pair spoke for more than an hour. The mayor said it was his suggestion that Maghnieh seek professional counselling and that he consider all of his options — long and short-term — before deciding whether to resign from council.

“‘You have to get in the proper frame of mind and you’re not there yet,’” Francis said he told Maghnieh.

City hall observers said Monday’s decision to remove Maghnieh from his council duties is an indication his colleagues think the disgraced rookie politician is still considering a return to the table.

“The message is clear ... don’t go into this thinking there’s a ton of support out there,” said Ward 7 Coun. Percy Hatfield.

By coincidence on Monday, the city’s first integrity commissioner, Bruce Elman, had been scheduled to introduce a draft complaints protocol to council. The policy was approved and council gave Elman his first formal assignment — probe the Maghnieh affair, including an investigation of “anyone else implicated.”

Council’s striking committee approved Gignac’s appointment to the library board, and she said one of her first tasks will be to review how Maghnieh was able to obtain a corporate credit card, something no other council member has ever had. “Somebody’s accountable for that,” said Gignac.

Francis has already requested additional financial information covering the library board, including more details of expenses covering Maghnieh, Cameron and CEO Barry Holmes. He said he met earlier Monday with Holmes and Ward 9 Coun. Hilary Payne, now the board’s acting-chairman: “I wouldn’t describe it as a pleasant meeting.”

Francis told reporters he still can’t understand why the CEO didn’t do more to prevent Maghnieh’s unauthorized spending.

In the course of the board’s annual audit by KPMG the accountants identified “a significant number of non-compliance issues,” according to their report made public Monday night. KPMG made clear that the library’s own corporate credit card policy forbids any non-business purchases.

The auditors also pointed out that the board and CEO must pre-approve all travel requests for employees and board members. Payne said the first he and other board members heard of Maghnieh’s expensed trips to Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington was through the KPMG audit.

After initially downplaying the amounts he was charging to his library credit card, Maghnieh last week agreed to repay the entire amount he charged on it over a four-month period — more than $13,000, including more than $8,400 in personal charges.

Payne said the last cheque for $195 to cover the balance of the larger figure was found slipped under the door of the library by a custodian early Saturday morning.

“I came to the conclusion a week ago that he should absolutely step down and I suggested that to him a few times,” Payne said in an interview prior to Monday’s council meetings. “I think it’s wise of him not to come tonight — I think it’s just too kind of overheated.”

Elman said his job as code of conduct watchdog is limited to ethical breaches and that the integrity commissioner cannot tackle legal or political transgressions.

He told The Star he hopes to report back to council on the Maghnieh affair in “much less than the 90 days” the new policy allows.

Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones said removing Maghnieh from the committees and agencies he sat on was important to give the public the message that “we are prepared to police our own.”

With files from Kristie Pearce

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